Big 3 plus Trevino aim to bring U.S. Open to West Virginia

Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Gary Player and Lee Trevino walk in a room together. What happens?

Well, the big 3 plus Trevino are building a course together in West Virignia meant to attract the state’s first U.S. Open. The Charlotte Gazette first broke the news.

According to the report, The Greenbrier owner Jim Justice has retained the golf legends in the vein of Chambers Bay, which was designed with the U.S. Open in mind. Justice, who is also running for governor in West Virginia, aims to build a course near The Greenbrier property in the Allegheny mountains.

Ground is scheduled to be broken in the next 30 days with the intent of opening the course in Fall 2016. The course would be the resort’s sixth. Its Old White TPC course already hosts the PGA Tour’s Greenbrier Classic, which is from June 29 to July 5 this year.

“What do we have left to do in life?” he asked. “If we can do something that’s fabulous for our state, we could bring a U.S. Open here someday, we could do all this stuff, my goodness gracious!” Said Justice.

Jim Justice

Per the Gazette, Nicklaus initially balked at the idea when first approached. “His first reaction was, ‘No way,'” Justice said. “He said, ‘It can’t be done.’ He said, ‘We’ve never done that before,’ and he said, ‘There’s no way it can be done.’”

Justice then reached out to Palmer and Player and now all four men have agreed to take part in the project.

“It’s something that has never happened before, it will probably never happen again,” Justice said. “Arnold Palmer is 86 years old. The odds of this ever happening again aren’t great. And so now, we have history happening right in front of us, right here in West Virginia.”